(Fantastic Comics 003, 1940) Back to the adventures of Sub Saunders in the Year 10 000 CE! Naulus has been defeated and for their part in achieving that the US military, represented by Sub Saunders, have been promised untold subsea riches recovered from millennia of shipwrecks. The problem with this plan is that the riches are still just kind of out on the seafloor and more specifically that Poseida, ruler of the nearby city of Coralla, has decided to gather…
(Fantastic Comics 003, 1940) The Robot Scientists of Venus are not particularly noteworthy villains on a lot of axes but they are the bosses of perhaps the most visually distinctive groups of the Golden Age, the Leopard Women of Venus. What other comic could offer a visual like this: a bevy of bodacious blonde babes in red leopardprint bodysuits, surfing through space on lizard monsters and blazing away with their head-guns? Other Fletcher Hanks comics, I guess, plus early Wonder…
(Exciting Comics 001, 1940) The Space Emperor first makes himself known to the solar authorities of 3964 AC (and no, I do not know what the C stands for) by either sending or allowing to escape an intelligence agent named Sperling who was investigating trouble on Jupiter for the President of Earth. Sperling has been transformed into a beast-man so horrible to behold that the President’s assistant kills him on sight but not before he can get the word out….
(Crash Comics Adventures 001, 1940) Black Michael is the leader of a band of space pirates based on Pluto and beginning in the year 2140 he terrorizes the solar system, killing and plundering at will. It’s unclear in the original story how long this state of affairs persists for, but a later installment of “the Solar Legion” takes place in 2260, suggesting that Black Michael and his crew might have been going strong for upwards of 120 years. That’s a…
(Colossus Comics 001, 1940) I included this cover here in order to indulge in a little personal nostalgia but instead I feel like I am going a bit mad. See, I know this cover very well, from somewhere. I thought it was from Jeff Rovin’s Encyclopedia of Supervillains, which I read through about one million times as a youth, but when I decided to check out the entry on Colossus in that book I could not find one. Ditto for…
(Fantastic Comics 001, 1939) Naulus is an undersea noble who is attempting to usurp the throne of Atlantis from its rightful ruler, Queen Lantida, and do Atlantean aristocrats get up to any other activities? Atlantis needs more hobby stores, I reckon. FATE OF ATLANTIS: this version of Atlantis appears to be the standard ancient sunken city saved by super science – specifically a sealed dome city full of air. These aren’t your water breathing Atlanteans, folks. Since this is a…
(Fantastic Comics 001, 1939) We open on Space Smith and his girlfriend Dianna (sometimes Diana) having a trans-Lunar space-date ruined by Martian Imp Men and I am immediately struck with the dilemma engendered by nearly all Fletcher Hanks stories: follow through on my impulses and post most if not all panels or be judicious for the sake of space and readability? I went with the latter but it hurt. So in lieu of my posting every panel that features the…
Just a little crypto-fascist saboteur named Dr Vee who battled Dynamic Man but I like his name and I like his style. His sartorial style. Not the fascism. (Mystic v1 002, 1940) Lemo here has a mechanical mole-style tank and reckons he can take over the world with it after almost destroying one (1) circus tent. It’s a good thing he was blown up by one of Marvel’s many Herculeses before he could get too far and get disappointed. (Mystic…
(Amazing-Man Comics 014, 1940) Before we get into the Fiend I just want to highlight this guy. He is about to have a world-record bad day at work. The reason that his day is so terrible is that he has just introduced guest speaker Professor Zuraw who, it turns out, is completely insane. Zuraw turns the radio station’s antenna into a death ray broadcaster, killing millions, and not only does our friend the announcer end up dead but any account…
(Amazing-Man Comics 011, 1940) On the surface Drago seems to merely be a guy who looks like an evil cat and shoots his henchmen rather than paying them (not only a nightmare for HR but a bad financial decision as you’ll be spending more in headhunting and training new goons than you will save in salaries), and that’s just what he is. There are no hidden depths. He kidnaps world-class scientists and sells them to the Axis-equivalent belligerent governments of…